Technical yarns of the kind described in the beginning are wound into yarn spools with yarn spooling machines. The yarn spooling machines can have only one spooling station or several spooling stations on which yarn spools can be wound in parallel. In the region of a spooling station, the yarn spooling machine has a spindle driven by a rotary drive. For winding a yarn spool, first a sleeve is applied to the spindle. The yarn is then fed to the spooling station. After catching the yarn, a winding is produced on the sleeve. After completion of the yarn spool formed with sleeve and winding, the yarn spool is detached from the yarn spooling machine by removing the yarn spool from the spindle in the axial direction. The yarn spool is then transported and especially brought to a further processing station, in which for example the yarn is unwound, or to a stocking device for stocking the yarn spools. Generally, there is a demand for yarn spools on which as much yarn as possible is wound, where, however, an increase of the accommodating capacity for a yarn spool is limited due to the mass of the winding which then increases as well.
U.S. Pat. No. 1,405,554 discloses a rack for spools by means of which a tangling of a thread in unwinding is intended to be avoided. The rack has sheet-like side walls. Between the side walls, on the one hand several holding rods for spools with a thread and on the other hand holding rods for crochet thread balls extend. The rack is used to hold the spool stationary to it, which can also be the case during the unwinding of the thread.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,921,185 discloses a rack for a spool for a yarn for knitting or crocheting. The rack is formed with two rods fixed to each other in an x-shaped and loose-jointed way. In its upper end portion one of the rods forms a half-shell-shaped receptacle for a telescopable shaft on which a winding of the yarn is placed. Here, too, the rack is used to hold the spool stationary to it, which can also be the case during the unwinding of the thread.
The document DE 100 36 861 A1 discloses a spooling machine on which spindles driven rotatably on a revolver are supported. The spindles have rotatable collet chucks. By means of the collet chucks it is possible to chuck on each spindle several sleeves arranged one after the other. The collet chuck is supported on the machine frame in one end portion. An additional support of the collet chuck is achieved on the opposite side of the collet chuck via an additional supporting device, which in a spooling position of the revolver is brought into engagement with the collet chuck. In order to achieve this, the supporting device comprises a carriage. By the carriage the supporting device is movable along two axes oriented orthogonally with respect to each other and lying in a plane oriented vertically to the longitudinal axis of the spindle.
The document WO 2007/083162 describes the winding of spools on a spindle of a spooling machine, the removal of the completely wound spool from the spindle of the spooling machine, the transport of the spool by means of a transport device to a storehouse, the removal of the spool from the transport device via a pivotable holder and the storing of the spool by means of a rack which comprises a horizontal spindle. After stocking (possibly over a span of several months), the spool is removed from the rack and again transported via the transport device, now to a rack from which then the spooling material is taken for further processing. The spooling material is to be unwound from the spool by pulling on the spooling material. On a rack several rows and columns of spools can be arranged. It is described as known here that the racks for several spools are realized as transport vehicles, in which way an exchange of the spools is to be accelerated. The holding device of the rack already comprises a guiding device for the spooling material. WO 2007/083162 proposes a transport vehicle for a spool. Frame trusses thereof are fixed to each other and extend along the edges of a cube. A vertical edge and the neighboring two upper horizontal edges of the cube are not equipped with edge trusses. On an additional vertical truss fixed to the edge trusses, a rotatable spindle is supported on which the spool is supported. The frame trusses are movably supported with respect to the floor via wheels. The spindle projects freely from the vertical truss. The spindle also extends out of the vertical truss on the side turned away from the spool with a free end portion. On this free end portion, a gearwheel is fixed. If a spool is supported on the spindle, the frame can on the one hand be displaced via the rolls, while on the other hand it is also possible that a transport of the spool is achieved by a fork of a forklift piler reaching below the underside of the frame. For the stocking of the spool, the frame can be arranged in a spool rack, which comprises a rotating organ and a yarn guiding device. Several spools are arranged on the spool rack in a grid-like way. The rotating organ of the spool rack is formed with a gearwheel which engages with the gearwheel of the spindle. Via a brake device, a braking force can be applied onto the gearwheel. After the winding of the spool on a spooling machine, the spool is removed from the spooling machine and pushed onto the spindle of the transport vehicle. On the transport vehicle, the spool is then brought to the spool rack. With the application of a pulling force onto the spooling material, the release of the brake device occurs, in which way an unwinding of the spool is possible. A decrease of the pulling force leads to an actuation of the brake device and therefore a reduction of the rotational frequency of the spool. Alternatively, it is proposed that during the unwinding of the spooling material a driving of the spindle of the transport vehicle can be achieved via an electric motor. In an alternative embodiment, the transport vehicle can only be formed with a floor frame and vertical trusses protruding freely from the floor frame on which then the spindle is held rotatably.
US 2012/0286083 A1 also discloses a transport rack for a spool. This transport rack has hexagonal frame elements on its front face, on each of which a vertical truss is supported on which the spool can be rotatably supported. The transport rack comprises rolls via which the transport rack with the spool can be moved to different usage sites. The frame elements on the front face comprise an accommodating device via which it is possible to accommodate a spool through which a shaft protruding on the end side extends and which rests on the floor with its outer surface by a rolling motion of the transport frame. After such an accommodation of the spool, the spool is rotatably supported on the transport rack.
General prior art pertaining to the functioning of a spooling machine can be taken from DE 10 2011 052 699 A1 (corresponding to US 2013/0037647 A1).
DE 41 25 310 A1 discloses a winding machine wherein an endless synthetic yarn is pulled by a supply device via a yarn guide from a supply. The yarn is passed over a heating track, cooled back by a cooling track, curled by a curling device and then transferred by a supply device to a traversing unit. Under use of the traversing unit, the yarn is wound to a cross-wound package on a spool. The spool is driven by a contact roller which is driven by an electric motor. The contact roller is pressed against the outer circumference of the wound package of the spool. DE 41 25 310 A1 does not disclose the way the spool is supported.
DE 1 949 423 A1 also describes a method for winding a yarn to a spool wherein the spool is driven by a contact roller. However, here the contact roller is pressed against a flange of the spool.
Also according to the publication JP S60 242155 A, the spool is in rolling contact with four contact roller in the region of end-sided flanges of the spool. The contact rollers are distributed along the circumference of the flanges and pressed against the flanges.
The publications U.S. Pat. No. 5,836,536 A, WO 81/02882 A1 and WO 2013/187964 A1 relate to a non-generic technological field, namely cable drums.